The Apache Modules Book: Application Development with Apache (Prentice Hall Open Source Software Development Series) (Paperback)

by Nick Kew (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Do you learn best by example and experimentation? This book is ideal. Have your favorite editor and compiler ready–you'll encounter example code you'll want to try right away. You've picked the right book–this is sure to become the de facto standard guide to writing Apache modules."

–Rich Bowen, coauthor, Apache Administrators Handbook, Apache Cookbook, and The Definitive Guide to Apache mod_rewrite

"A first-rate guide to getting the most out of Apache as a modular application platform–sure to become a must-read for any Apache programmer, from beginner to experienced professional. It builds up carefully and meticulously from the absolute basics, while including chapters on everything from the popular Apache DBD Framework to best practices, security, and debugging."

–Noirin Plunkett, documentation committer to the Apache httpd project, and member of the ASF conference committee

The Only Comprehensive Guide to Developing Apache 2.x Modules and Applications

Apache is more than the world's most popular Web server–it's also an extraordinarily powerful and extensible development platform. Now, ApacheTutor.org's Nick Kew has written The Apache Modules Book, the first start-to-finish, example-rich guide for every developer who wants to make the most of Apache.

Kew begins with detailed, accessible introductions to Apache's architecture and API, then illuminates all the techniques you'll need, from request processing through code security. He brings together the best of both worlds: powerful C-based techniques for accomplishing tasks Perl or PHP can't handle, implemented with tools that deliver all the productivity you'd expect from higher-level languages. Utilizing realistic code samples, Kew introduces techniques documented in no other book-and, often, nowhere else at all.

Coverage includes

• Using Apache Portable Runtime (APR) to streamline C development and avoid its pitfalls

• Leveraging Apache DBD to build applications far more scalable than classic LAMP software

• Working with the latest Apache 2.x features: filter modules, XML support, and smart proxies

• Mastering best practices, from thread safety to multi-platform development

• Utilizing the Apache Authentication Framework

• Tracing and debugging problems in both Apache and your custom modules

Foreword
Preface 
Acknowledgments
About the Author 
Chapter 1 Applications Development with Apache
Chapter 2 The Apache Platform and Architecture
Chapter 3 The Apache Portable Runtime
Chapter 4 Programming Techniques and Caveats
Chapter 5 Writing a Content Generator
Chapter 6 Request Processing Cycle and Metadata Handlers
Chapter 7 AAA: Access, Authentication, and Authorization
Chapter 8 Filter Modules
Chapter 9 Configuration for Modules
Chapter 10 Extending the API
Chapter 11 The Apache Database Framework
Chapter 12 Module Debugging
Appendix A Apache License
Appendix B Contributor License Agreements
Appendix C Hypertext Transfer Protocol: HTTP/1.1
Index

About the Web Site

ApacheTutor.org contains code examples from the book, all designed for easy use and integration into existing applications.

About the Author

Nick Kew is a leading developer of Apache applications, many of which can be found at his company's site, http://apache.webthing.com. He is a member of the Apache Web server core development team and of the Apache Software Foundation. He is active in both user and developer support, and gives tutorials and presentations at relevant conferences such as ApacheCon. He created and maintains http://www.apachetutor.org, and writes on Apache topics for a range of leading online publications.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1 edition (February 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132409674
• ISBN-13: 978-0132409674
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #278,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Consistent, well-written, but a bit gap toothed , November 25, 2007

By	Brian Fox (San Diego CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book easily earns five stars despite a few glaring issues. Why? It's the best, most consitent, and approachable guide you'll find to writing Apache modules.

I spent two weeks scouring the net for APR examples and explanations. I started with the O'Reilly books only to find they are incredibly out of date. I moved on to Apache sanctioned module source code. I dissected source code for other modules only to find that the examples fluctuated on approach and, apparently, on the author's grasp of the entire APR libraries. Some folks wrote against previous APR version libraries and macros. Others used the updated APR. Still others rolled their own versions of functions that were already written, just not discovered. Tutorials varied in reliability with similar issues. And my desk quickly filled with highlighted and sticky-noted annotated examples.

This book replaced all those loose inconsistent notes with a solid example-centric nicely bound guide. Five stars. Just for that.

This book is not without problems though. First, it makes reference to programming paradigms which, frankly, I've never heard of before and which this book inadequately explains. Brigade buckets is an example. Bridage buckets are incrementally explained as a ring data store (eh?), a doubly linked list (okay, firm ground), and then a mechanism for passing data through layered IO (another eh?). I couldn't get much from the explanation. Googling "brigade bucket" led to IEEE DSP circuit design and a heated debate on using solid state delay effects for guitar pedals. Apparently brigade buckets don't quote share the same prolific status as, say, something more Knuth-ess.

The book explained thread safety in a similarly gap toothed summary. It offers this fatherly advice: avoid shared memory and make sure functions are reentrant. That wasn't much help for me. I'd prefer to have a detailed explanation of why the APR libraries have both reentrant and non-reentrant versions of the same functions. Wouldn't any reasonable programmer always use the reentrant version? If not, I'd like to know why... with some precision.

The final gripe: the book includes RFC 2616 in it's entirety. This needlessly adds 200 pages of non-original and otherwise easily (and FREEly) accessibe volume. Granted, the publisher formatted the RFC nicely. It's a bit easier to read than the fixed format of the real RFC. But why not add a few notes? The author could have taken the edge off of the RFC-legalese and made it a bit more approachable (think learning bible with more notes than text). At the risk of discouraging future books of this level, the RFC is a blatant copout and just a really disgusting way of bumping page numbers.

So, those are the issues I had. I'm still giving this a solid five as it outshines any other information I've found to date.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I was surprised, March 9, 2007

By	Anthony Lawrence "Unix, Linux and Mac OS X" (Middleboro, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was (pleasantly) surprised by this.

I drive my website with Perl cgi scripts - basically a home grown CMS that gives me the control I want. I'd never thought much about the inner workings of the modules I do use, and certainly never thought that I could replace a tremendous amount of my cgi Perl code with a direct module. But after reading this, I realized it wouldn't be all that hard to do.

Now it is true that I haven't done much with C for a long, long time. In spite of that, I feel reasonably confident that I could extend the examples given in Nick's book to do exactly what I need much more quickly and efficiently - sure, there are higher level tasks that might be more than I could tackle, but the basics seem quite easy and attainable.

Well written, easy to follow (and downloadable) examples, and at least as far as I can tell, quite comprehensive. Good job!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive source for Apache module writers, August 27, 2007

By	D. Gentry (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I tried to write an Apache module using only the documentation and reference material available on the net, and failed. The documentation you can find on the net (even on Apache.org's own website) is either completely out of date or maddeningly vague. If you spend enough time in trial and error you might get your module to work. Then again, you might not.

If you're trying to write or maintain an Apache module, this book is an invaluable tutorial and resource. It saved me a great deal of time and frustration.